Navy

If you or your family need anything at all, we will be there.  If you are married or related to the military, you have heard this line more than a few times. Over the years, I have often felt that this...

  Many of us have experienced that moment; you're casually chatting with another military spouse, and she uses some crazy acronym you have never heard before. Rather than come across as totally clueless, you smile and nod. Little does she...

Most people hear the word “retirement” and think of something that happens later in life. Generally, it is a time where one stops working and lives off of a company pension, retirement plan, or savings. It evokes images of...

A few months ago, my 10-year-old daughter came home from school and said, “Mom, today at school, a girl told me to go back where I came from. She also told me that they are a certain type of...

Since our arrival in Japan, the base installation has offered an Emergency Preparedness class almost every month focusing on NEO (noncombatant evacuation operations). I put off taking this class for over half a year, thinking this would never affect...

As the summer approaches, many of us will pick up our family and all that we know to move across the country, or even the world for our spouse’s job. This isn’t new to us. As military families, we...

It was my most difficult goodbye. We spent a month leaving jobs and schools; friends and people who had became family; favorite places and foods. I ate more currywurst und pommes and drank more espresso doppio and Hefeweizen than...

“Sign us up!” my kids commanded after receiving mail from YMCA’s Camp Carson. Normally, I’d be put off by such demands, but this is one I’m happy to give in to. This will be the fifth year I send my...

There's nothing like a job search to make me feel underqualified and undervalued. As a military spouse who has moved five times in the six years since getting married, I don't really have a career. I have hobbies, I...

Moving away from your tribe is arguably the hardest part of a military permanent change of station (PCS). You spend between two and five years (give or take a year or two) building relationships, finding those people who are...

To the new military spouse: I see you. You are standing by the wall at a squadron function. You alternate between timid and brazen, depending on your personality. Your eyes flit over every person there. You stay close to your significant...

Last spring, I cut back my Russian sage plants to practically nothing. I read and followed the online advice for pruning the plant, but I was nervous that I might have taken too much off. Would the plant survive...